Footwear



L. BRESLOW Jan. 9, 1962 FOOTWEAR Filed Nov. 15, 1960 Illll'fll'IIIIIII'IIIIIIIII 11,1 ,111! III JNVENTOR. LEON BRESLOW ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,015,896 FOOTWEAR Leon Breslow, 185 E. 162nd St., New York, N.Y. Filed Nov. 15, 1960, Ser- No. 69,469 1 Claim. (Cl. 36-58.6)

Tl'lle invention herein disclosed relates to footwear genera y.

Objects of the invention are to provide means for enabling proper fitting of a shoe to the foot and of such a nature that it may be adjusted for purposes of comfort of greater security and which. when not needed or desired, may be left out of the shoe and the shoe then be worn without this special securing means, in the usual way.

Briefly stated, the invention may be said to comprise a holding or closing element, generally in the nature of a foot engaging strap or band and which may be detachably and adjustably secured to the shoe structure by variably engageable companion fastening members in the shoe and on the holding element.

A special feature of the companion fasteners or securing elements is that they consist of masses or beds of small points or prongs, which may be engaged in different ways and interlocked by pressing them together in a selected relation, and which while securely holding against longitudinal separation, may be readily separated by a transverse peeling action.

Further important features of the invention and desirable objects accomplished are set forth and will appear in the course of the following specification.

The drawing accompanying and forming part of this specification illustrates one of the many possible different embodiments of the invention and it will be appreciated that structure may be modified and changed all within the true intent and scope of the invention as hereinafter defined and claimed.

FIG. 1 in the drawing is a plan view of a mans shoe having the invention incorporated therein.

FIG. 2 is a longitudinal sectional view as on line 2-4 of FIG. 1, showing a retainer in the shoe in the form of a heel stay and broken lines indicating how a strap or stay may be attached in position to serve as an ankle or instep stay.

FIG. 3 is a broken sectional view on an enlarged scale taken on line 3-3 of FIG. 2 and showing the interlocking effect of two mating sections of fasteners.

FIG. 4 is a broken part sectional perspective view of one of the stays with the companion sets of fastener elements at opposite ends of the same.

The several views show how the invention may be incorporated in many different kinds and styles of footwear.

FIGS. 1 and 2 show the invention applied to a mans slipper 15, of a more or less conventional form.

This shoe has been modified to the extent of having patches 16 and 17 of fastening medium applied to the walls of the instep and counter portions of the shoe at opposite sides of the shoe, ready to receive companion fastener elements on the ends of a heel strap, ankle strap or the like.

In this particular illustration, a flexible and somewhat elastic, sock gripping strap or band 18, is provided and this has at its opposite ends pads 19, of companion fastener elements to match and interlock with those which have been made parts of the shoe.

The fastener pads 16 and 17, may be secured in place in the shoe by stitching, cementing, or otherwise, lying flat against the inside surface of. the shoe, or if desired, inset or sunk into the wall of the shoe so as not to project beyond the normal wall surface of the shoe. In any event, these fastener pads are so thin and are so secured as to not project or form any objectionable protuberance on the inner wall of the shoe.

FIG. 3 shows in somewhat exaggerated detail how the fastener pads are conformed to the wall of the shoe and how even when the heel stay is attached thereto,'there is no objectionable bulge by the conforming fastener elements.

While different forms of fasteners may be employed, the fasteners known as' Velcro of U.S. Pat. No. 2,717,437, Sept. 13, 5, and made up of masses of companion hooks and loops have been found practical for the purpose, the mating sections of these fasteners meshing and interlocking under pressure in any selected angle and to any desired extent of overlapping. Furthermore, these fasteners while holding securely against longitudinal pull, may when desired, be easily separated by a transverse peeling" action of one fastener in respect to the companion fastener.

Thus a great variety of stays or straps may be made up with fastener pads, to be selected as desired for use with shoes which have had the companion fastener pads incorporated in them, possibly at the time of manufacture or sale.

The invention is of special value in enabling a shoe to be held to the foot to just the desired extent and in fact, because of the possible angular adjustment, at just the right points.

The holding force may be increased or diminished by varying the extent of overlap of the companion fastener pads. If pressure at any time becomes uncomfortable, the holding force may be relieved by detaching one or both ends of the strap or stay and re-engaging the companion fasteners to a lesser extent of overlap or possibly in a different angular relation.

These attachable and detachable stays and straps may be sold apart from the shoes, possibly to be used in a later purchase, in many cases as a further safety or ornamental feature of the shoe.

The built-in fastening elements do not detract from the appearance, comfort or wearing characteristics of the shoe. The shoes so equipped may be used either with or Without the straps or stays and straps of different character may be substituted at different times on the same shoes.

The invention it will be seen, may be incorporated in all kinds of shoes.

The fasteners used to provide the overlapping fully adjustable, attachable and detachable connection between the shoes and the various kinds of stays may be considered each as a multiplicity of small, short and closely spaced upstanding holding elements in the nature of spines or tentacles having enlarged ends or heads, which as they are overlapped in pressing companion fasteners together will grip each other and by reason of their being so closely spaced will be held in that interlocked relation, so as in the aggregate to form a substantially solid connection resisting pulling apart in the longitudinal direction, in the general plane of the fasteners but releasable by transverse pull, which will separate the engaged couples individually, one pair or group of pairs after another.

The close spacing, compact relation of the holding spines presents a relatively smooth surface, which is not objectionable to the foot and which will not wear a sock or stocking on the foot. The individual holding elements furthermore may be so small as not to be ordinarily observable and hence are not objectionable in the appearance of the shoe.

The prongs or spines which constitute the closely spaced interlocking holding elements of the companion pads in the shoe and on the stay are so disposed that the prongs on the side walls of the shoe project inwardly, that is, toward the center of the shoe and the prongs on 3 the stay, in the engaged position of the parts, project outwardly, that is, toward the outside or away from the center of the shoe so that companion pads engage in the faceto face relation shown in FIG. 4. 7

What is claimed is:

Footwear with adjustable, removable and replaceable retaining means comprising a shoe structure having op posite side walls, a flexible heel engaging stay detachably connected'at its opposite ends with said opposite side walls of the shoe structure, a pad of closely spaced, small, short,jstifi hplding elements on the inner. surface of oneside wall of said shoe structure projecting inwardly toward the center of the shoe and a companion pad of closely spaced, small, short, stiff holding elements on one end of saidstay projecting outwardly toward the outside away from the center of the shoe and in interlocking engagement over theoppositely projecting holding elements in the shoe and said companion pads being adapted to be interlockingly connected in ditferent extents of overlapped engagement and in different angular relations whereby effective length of the stay may be determined by overlapping the companion pads to dilferent extents and angular'relation of the stay to the shoe structure may be determined by engaging the overlapped pads in diiferent angular relations;

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

